By Timothy Adler on Small Business – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs
One in five small business staff are estimated to be self-isolating having been “pinged” by the NHS Covid app.
With an estimated 20 per cent of the small business workforce self-isolating, independent shops, restaurants and bars are having to close for the interim, unable to find staff.
Katie Nicholls, head of UKHospitality, told the Financial Times self-isolating was even worse for a small business in the hospitality sector, with up to one third of staff being forced to stay at home in some cases.
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Self-isolating is wreaking havoc with small business owners up and down the country just as the country reopens fully on July 19 — so-called “Freedom Day”.
New workplace guidance tells companies they are legally responsible if employees do not isolate, only exacerbating the problem.
Workers “pinged” by the NHS Covid app are told to self-isolate for 10 days if they have come into contact with an infected person, in what is now being called a “pingdemic”.
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And the pingdemic can only get worse as Covid infections rip through the population.
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